An Xbox 360 Pour Moi

Decided to treat myself today with the last big expense of the year and the last big expense in quite a while, picking up an Xbox 360 complete with wireless controller, hard drive, headset and a copy of Pro Evo 6. Gamestop had a handy offer on, if you traded in an original xbox and a few old games you would get the pro bundle for 299 - mine finished out at 280 for the lot and its now humming away in the corner of the room. Really like the way you can turn the console on straight from the joypad - no more getting up out of the bed to switch it off after watching a DVD!

What I can’t get over is the price of things. Xtravision, bless their hearts, had games going from 50 - 75 Euro while Gamestop were roughly the same. My quest for the day was to pick up a copy of Dead Rising (video link) alas nowhere in Kilkenny or Carlow, video shop or game shop, has the thing in stock. Nevertheless, I’m a patient man, so why pay 75 quid for it in town when you can order it off Play.com for 37 Euro?

I sure as hell know where I’ll be shopping for games anyway…

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10 Things: 10 Things I Would Like In 2007

Not getting greedy or anything but here’s a few things that I would like in 2007…

1. To get back to Toronto
2. Buy that Telecaster that I keep looking at on Thomann
3. Buy an XBOX 360
4. Organise some serious funding for KilkennyMusic.com and watch that little baby grow - either through sponsorship or by actually putting my head down and developing a strong business plan and revenue stream for it.
5. Celebrate 2 years in business with style and watch THAT little baby grow even more.
6. Go skiing again (seen as my trip in February is off)
7. Develop some kind of timetable for blogging outside of kenmc.com - Liverpool Access, Mobileblogr and The Football Times take a little hit every now and again.
8. Finish recording the Happy Medium EP which was started before the summer this year.
9. Get through Cannibal! The Musical with The Devious Theatre Company and start touring Heart Shaped Vinyl.
10. Get to spend a little more time up in Sligo. Have van, will travel and all that. Christmas was a good start.

Home Again, Home Again

Great week away up in Sligo (Lough Talt area if anyone is interested, its closer to Ballina, Mayo, than it is Sligo but we just sneak inside the border). Too much food, not enough getting out-and-about, plenty of beer, wine, music, song, the whole lot. You think people would just NOT email you over the Christmas, a week producing 182 non-spam emails.

Off to get some blog reading done as there seems to have been a nice bit of activity in the week

10 Things: 10 Songs That Should Be On Your iPod

Here’s ten songs that should definitely be on your iPod. If you picked one up for Christmas or decided to treat yourself then throw these ten songs on it. Track purchase links point to GoMusic.ru (cheaper alternative to iTunes), just for those of you who like to download. Full album links point to Play.com, cheaper alternative to shopping in your local high street store, for those of you who like to shop for the real thing.

1. The Guggenheim Grotto - A Lifetime In Heat (Free Download)
   This version taken from the ‘A Lifetime In Heat’ EP.
2. Cary Brothers - Blue Eyes (Purchase)
   Taken from the ‘All The Rage EP’, also available on the Garden State soundtrack.
3. A Perfect Circle - Fiddle And The Drum (Purchase)
   Fantastic vocal duet taken from the Emotive album, released 2004.
4. New York Fashion Week - Dear Spartacus (MySpace)
   I got to know Dylan, Rob and Neil through work with KilkennyMusic.com and have to mark them as one to watch in 2007. We featured them on the Sound System Podcast and on KCLR, their track “Dear Spartacus’ is still available to download on MySpace, give it a listen and a download.
5. Alanis Morissette - No Pressure Over Cappuccino (purchase)
   Taken from the ‘MTV Unplugged‘ album, which should be part of anyone’s collection.
6. Death Cab For Cutie - The New Year (purchase)
   Introduced to them about a year ago, spent a bottle of wine or two listening to them in Toronto, taken from the album Transatlanticism which is well worth having.
7. Deftones - Passenger (purchase)
   Taken from the ‘White Pony‘ album, its fantastic track with an appearance by Maynard James Keenan (Tool) on vocals alongside Chino Moreno
8. Matisyahu - Youth (purchase)
   I was introduced to this deadly blend of Jewish reggae (can you class it like that?). This is the title track from the album of the same name, ‘Youth‘.
9. Silverchair - Emotion Sickness (purchase)
   Taken from the Neon Ballroom album, this is the first track and one of the real standout tracks from the album. Ah those glorius summers…. and old one but a good one!
10. Weezer - Buddy Holly (purchase)
    Buddy Holly was used as the track played during the curtain call for ‘Heart Shaped Vinyl’ that I was involved in over the summer. Given the nature of the play, I don’t think we could have asked for a better track to be used. Taken from the Weezer Blue album.

*Songs are ordered for appearance (10 things) and not by order of preference

10 Things: 10 Great Moments (For Me) From 2006

Here’s another one, this time it is 10 great moments for me in 2006… Again, lists are ordered for appearance as opposed to preference.

1. Celebrating one full year in business with Event Ireland
2. A few months later, celebrating one full year on the go with KilkennyMusic.com.
3. Launching the One Take Sessions in November, seen as I had been planning them since January of this year. Nothing like 11 months of planning to pull off a series of gigs!
4. Getting to see Tool in The Point - that kind of show doesn’t come along every day of the week!
5. Hearing Fairground Attraction getting played on the radio for the first time. Nothing like having your own music on the radio - and it wasn’t the last time either.
6. Steel Pulse in Belfast - 15 of us on a minibus that we hired to take us from Kilkenny to Belfast and back again in the one night - roadtrip of a lifetime.
7. The day I opened the Kilkenny People and saw that KilkennyMusic.com had been awarded the largest grant in Kilkenny through the Arts Office, something I’m ever thankful for, knowing that the funding received has enabled us to make it a full year and beyond.
8. Christmas with the family - always something I look forward to
9. Completing the trifecta of Mark Knopfler (2005), Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen (both 2006) live. Growing up listening to some of your musical idols, its great to be able to see them live before they give up on the touring side of life.
10. Getting to Toronto, definitely the highlight of the year, no doubt about it.

10 Things: 10 Books I’ve Read This Year

Here’s a list of some of the books that I’ve managed to get through this year. Seen as I read them I’d recommend them - links from either Play.com or Amazon UK (both are non-affiliate links).

1. Mary Mary by James Patterson
2. Start An Independant Record Label by J S Rudsenske
3. Jennifer Government by Max Barry (which I must return to its rightful owner!)
4. Foul! by Andrew Jennings
5. Make Money With Your Studio by Tom Volinchak
6. May Day by Nelson DeMille & Thomas Block
7. Football For Dummies by Howie Long
8. Producing Successful Magazines, Newsletters & Ezines by Carol Harris
9. Cross by James Patterson
10. Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose

10 Things: The Ten Blogs That I Keep (or try to)

Some of you know and regularly read this blog (kenmc.com / Creative Imagination) but did you know about the full family?

1. KENMC.COM - Ken McGuire, on the web. My primary blog, no doubt about that. Looks at technology and the web along with little asides that catch my eye.
2. LiverpoolAccess.com - Follows Liverpool football club, my own match reviews throughout the season, club news, transfer updates and the likes. Stemmed out of World Cup Access which is no longer updated.
3. Mobileblogr - Started late in the year as a way of me keeping track of mobile developments, something I’ve held an interest in since college and wish, looking back, that we could have spent a little more time looking at developing for a mobile environment.
4. Ken McGuire Photography - This one will definitely be getting attention and an update over the Christmas, its been a good six weeks since I’ve uploaded some work to it. The photoblog was restarted when I gave up on DeviantART earlier this year and continues to house my most recent work.
5. One Take Sessions - Video clips, mentions of bands and a way to keep track of whats going on at the One Take Sessions, held every third Thursday in Kilkenny with KilkennyMusic.com
6. Sound System - Blog for the Sound System Podcast, show guides, links to bands mentioned and covered, downloads for each podcast (also available on iTunes).
7. Battle Of The Bands - Coverage of the 2006 Battle Of The Bands as well as coverage on the development of the 2007 event.
8. The Medium Site - Blog kept for the band, not updated too frequently but its there all the same (last updated mid December)
9. The KilkennyMusic.com Blog - Currently available as a member only feature but going public in January, I’ve just added some extra writers so I’m expecting a major push on the blog side of KilkennyMusic.com for 2007, you can already put aside that 2008 Best Music Blog award for me Damien
10. Event Ireland Blog - I’m currently working on the theme, it will be sorted out, with the content back live, at the end of the holidays.

Happy Christmas

Whatever language you say it in and what ever country you’re in or from, Happy Christmas to you. Thanks to everyone who has been reading during the year and continues to do so. If you’ve never introduced yourself, don’t be afraid to drop me a line.

I hope the festive season is good to you and wish you all the best (in blogging and in life) for 2007.

10 Things: 10 Non-Irish Blogs I’d Recommend

Another list of 10 things from myself, this time its ten non-Irish blogs that I read on a daily (or almost daily) basis. A good bunch of tech/web blogs, a nice music blog, and one for Lost fans.

1. Micropersuasion - Steve Rubel
2. Techcrunch - Mike Arrington
3. Engadget
4. VentureBeat (formerly SiliconBeat)
5. Business Opportunities - Dane Carlson
6. Cyber Journalist
7. The Lost Blog by Andreas Climent
8. The Unofficial Apple Weblog
9. Regnyouth (great for music)
10. Successful Blog - Liz Strauss

Happy Christmas From Mobileblogr

I’m heading away today for the Christmas, no internet connection until the 29th so there’ll be no blog activity. There’s a few posts racked up on my personal blog, kenmc.com, if you’re interested!

Thanks for reading so far and helping to make the blog what it is, Happy Christmas to you and yours and have a great holiday season!

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